Monday, 18 January 2016

Kavaratti Islands, Lakshadweep

DAY
6: KAVARATTI ISLAND

DAY
4: OF LAKSHADWEEP CRUISE – KAVARATTI ISLAND

Today we will go to the capital
of Lakshadweep Island – Kavaratti Islands. But it was not a smooth journey to
Kavaratti Islands. Normally the sea had been calm and quite. But today, it was wild
as if it wanted us to witness its fury. The sea was indeed rough with strong
winds and high waves.

Kavaratti Island, Lakshadweep

One big boat was called to take
us to the island. As usual we were one of the last one to reach the
disembarkment point of the ship. The first boat was already full and we, with
few other ten to fifteen odd people were asked to wait for the second boat. The
first boat was ready to move towards the island but was not able to, thanks to
the turbulent waves. This made the boat bobble up and down by 5 to 7 feet,
making it precarious for people to disembark as well as board the second boat.
Plus the waves were strong and also against the direction of the path the boat
intended to take, making it tougher for the boat to sail through. It was a
blessing that we were not in the first boat. On top of all this, it had started
raining as well.

SPORTS - IDs

After a struggle of an hour or
so, the first boat was finally able to move towards the island. With the boat
gone, the disembarkment doors were closed and all the exits to the open of the
ship were closed as the sea was very wild and there was danger of someone
falling over board. Since there were still around twenty people who had to go
to the island, it was decided by the ship team that the ship will move more
close to the island expecting that the sea waves will not be so strong closer
to the island.

Once the ship came closest it could
be to the island another boat came to fetch us. The sea was still rough and this
boat too was moving up and down because of the waves. Pramod & Preeti
decided to skip Kavaratti Islands considering the unfavorable conditions of
disembarking. Also they had taashi with them and since it was raining, they didn’t
want to take a chance of Taashi falling ill.

Disembarkation was a mess. We
got on the boat, crossing my fingers for smooth sailing and some great weather
as we all were looking forward to a good beach time on the last island visit of
Lakshadweep.

As expected this island was
much bigger than the other two islands. There were more people in this island
as compared to the other two we had visitied – Minicoy and Kalpeni Islands.

Once of the land, we could say
that the weather improved a bit and we could see clouds flying away a little. It
was drizzling when we came to the island. The resort is right next to the jetty
and therefore we walked down to the resort. As usual, coconut water was waiting
for us. After the refreshing coconut water, we met with our co passengers who
had come from the boat one and listened to their adventurous ride. The weather
was becoming better and therefore they opened the scuba diving and glass boat
rides.

The Beach

Nikhil and Parth again went for
scuba diving and I headed for glass boat ride. In the glass boat, slowly the
marine life comes alive… you can see the life under the sea up close, with the
help of the ‘magnifying’ glass… so many colourful fishes.. so many corals… such
beauty!!

The boat took us to the
boundary where the shallow water ends and the deep sea starts. At this point it
was blue water everywhere…

Colour of the sea

While heading back to the
island our boat stopped working and suddenly we were in the middle of the sea
with no way to go back. Finally after waiting for a while another boat came and
tugged us to the island. By this time it had started raining heavily again.

We rushed to our palm tree
leaves cottages to take refuge from the rain and the chilly wind. Nikhil and
Parth returned shortly afterward and narrated their experience. The marine life
here was apparently much richer than what they had seen in Mini Coy. But this
could also be due to the right spot being picked up the scuba divers.

Lunch was followed with an hour
waiting for the rain to subside. To pass time we strolled through the narrow
roads, close to the resort and saw the only first traffic signal of
Lakshwadeep. Once the rain subsided we were taken to a Marine aquarium and a
Museum, with a 10 min drive through the island in a small bus.

Marine Museum

There were varieties of fishes,
crabs and all kind of marine life kept in glass jars like zoology specimen. Here
for the first time we saw the skeleton of a whale. It was HUGE, extending some 25
to 30 feet, almost 70% length of the hall. After this we returned back to the
resort for some tea and biscuits. SPORTS authorities had arranged for a folk
music presentation.

Sperm Whale

After the folk music we did had
some fun time at the beach and then were asked to head towards the jetty. Realization
struck that these were our last moments on Lakshwadeep and we let the
shutterbug within us go loose J Once on the boat and just when
we crossed the imaginary boundary of the laggons and entered the deep sea we
realized that the sea was still wild and angry. Our boat could not reach the
ship and thus again our ship came to us.

Kavaratti Island, Lakshadweep

Once again it was quite an
adventure to embark our ship from the boat. Once in we realized that this was
our last sighting of the islands of Lakshadweep. Time to say good bye and head back
to Kochi. As the ship started, we were leaving these beautiful islands far
behind. The only thing now remaining in this cruise was return journey back
home.

Points
to remember:

We went to Lakshadweep Island
through Lakshadweep Samundram Package which is a five day cruise to visit the
islands of Minicoy, Kalpeni and Kavaretti by ship M.V. Kavaretti. The package
is arranged by The Society for Promotion of Nature Tourism and Sports (SPORTS),
a Government undertaking. The island tour is organized during the day with
lunch and refreshments ashore. Nights are spent on board the ship. M.V
Kavaratti has 150 Diamond class accommodations. Swimming, snorkeling and other
water sports are arranged during the day tour. Children from 1 year and above
up to 10 years will be treated as child.

8. All the
Government taxes.
9. Our personal assistance on the ship and Island

Please note scuba diving is not
included in the package. You can avail scuba diving by paying at the scuba
diving center.

There
is no mobile network on the ship and on the islands except of BSNL. So, say
goodbye to facebook, watsapp, twitter or whatever else that you are hooked to.
You might find network on Kavaretti Island.